KARACHI: Eminent poet Zehra Nigah won the lifetime achievement award at the 8th UBL Literary Awards function held at a hotel here on Saturday evening.

It proved a little disconcerting that the anchors for the show, Wasi Shah and Rubab, came across under-rehearsed. At least on a few occasions they re-invited the award-givers on stage after thanking them for doing their bit.

It all began with president and CEO of UBL Sima Kamil’s nice little speech. She joked about bankers being boring persons and then on a serious note lauded the creative lot of society, adding that her team’s effort was to recognise their (writers, poets etc) worth. She remarked we have a heritage that we should be proud of.

Ms Kamil informed the audience that members of the jury for the Urdu books were Asghar Nadeem Syed, Syeda Arifa Zehra, Masood Ashar, Anwaar Ahmed and Kishwer Naheed; whereas Ghazi Salahuddin and Asif Farrukhi judged the English books. In all, the jury went through 130 books before making their decisions.

The first category was Best Children’s Book in English. Amina Azfar’s Partition won the award for it. The award was received from Hasina Moin and Anwaar Ahmed on Ms Azfar’s behalf by her daughter Ayesha.

The second category was Best Children’s Book in Urdu. It was won by Nazmen, Pahelian, Keh Mukarnian penned by the late Shanul Haq Haqee. His grandson Faizan received it from Masood Ashar and Mehtab Rashdi.

The award for the Best translation in Urdu was won by Munawwar Hasan, who earned it for his book Duur uftada shehr se aik taveel nazm, a translation of a long Seraeki poem by Rifat Abbas.

The late Fahmida Riaz’s collection of poems Tum Kabir was declared the Best Book of Poetry in Urdu. Her daughter Veerta got the award and also recited her mother’s poem.

This was followed by a break in proceedings in which Samia Mumtaz presented a classical dance.

Next up was the category Best Book in Fiction in Urdu. It was won by Akhtar Reza Saleemi’s novel Jandar. Asghar Nadeem Syed and Zeba Bakhtiar gave away the award.

Tariq Khosa’s book The Faltering State won in the Best Nonfiction Book in English category. He got his trophy from Arifa Zehra and Jimmy Engineer. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Khosa said his book was dedicated to the thousands of policemen and citizens who laid down their lives in senseless violence.

The penultimate prize of the evening went to Nasir Abbas Nayyar’s book on poet Miraji titled Us ko ik shakhs samjhna to munasib hi nahin. Mr Nayyar said writing the book was an attempt to challenge the notion that Miraji could be written about in Nehru’s India and not in Iqbal’s Pakistan.

Finally, Zehra Nigah was given the lifetime achievement award by Simi Kamil. The poet thanked the organisers and recited a couple of verses for the audience, one of which was:

Husn-i-ta’aluqaat ko to waqt kha gaya

Qaem raha to rishta-i-beganagi raha

[Time consumed the warmth that we had for each other

What remained constant was the strangeness between us]

Ghazal singer Salman Alvi entertained the audience after the show.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2019